Beautiful Albania | Gjirokaster and the Vjosa River Valley

They're leaving Friday.  Eight months gone like that!  We owe a huge debt of gratitude to Anna and Abby for spending their first year after graduation preparing for and coming to Albania to serve us and the kiddos.  They turned down job offers in the States to live in an old "commy condo" with no luxuries like a microwave or central heat in the heart of the concrete jungle of Tirana -- and all for no salary.

We spent a few days between Christmas and New Year's to go to the North, but other than that trip to Shkodra, the girls' exposure to Albania has been somewhat limited to what we experience during the day-in and day-out of life in Tirana or the village.  Before they left, we wanted to take them on a 'thank you' trip to see more of this beautiful country, as well as have some time to rest after a busy winter and spring and make some fun memories before saying 'goodbye'.

Here are some photos from our favorite places along the way...

Even on cloudy days, the views are still breath taking (looking west, getting a glimpse of the sea, south of Vlora) as we climb over the first of many mountain passes.

Here is me by the same sign, 10 years ago:

Can you tell how windy and chilly it was at the top of the pass?  Can you see the clouds rolling in over the mountains behind us?

Nathan and I at the same spot, on a warmer, sunnier day in 2004... you can get a hint of the turquoise waters of the Ionian Sea (or as they call it here, Deti Jon).

As we drove south along the coast, we saw a lot fewer mosques and a lot more Orthodox churches...

Albania is home to three UNESCO World Heritage Sites and on this trip south we saw two of them!  Gjirokaster is famous as the birthplace of the infamous dictator, Enver Hoxha.  But it's also known for it's narrow, cobblestone streets and slate roofs.  We just might have stayed overnight at one of these restored antique homes (below).  A real treat and departure from the usual modern motel/hotel in this country.  It had hardwood floors and hand-crocheted lace curtains instead of the typical ceramic tile floors and slider drapes.  Oh!  And homemade donuts and fig jam next to a steaming teapot of mountain tea for breakfast! (All for about the price of what it cost to stay in a guestroom at the student center in Wilmore).

I was not prepared for the massive size of the castle at Gjirokaster.  Anyone who has ever visited the many castle ruins around central Albania (and there are MANY), you ain't seen nothin'.  This was used as a prison up through communist times.  And no, that's not Ellie, that's Anna (to show scale).

Shot this out the car window -- love the detail in the stone street pattern.  We definitely want to go back and spend a bit more time here someday!  

We were told about hot springs "somewhere around Permet".  We looked online to no avail.  Nothin' on Google maps showing the name of the village we had been given.   When all else fails?  Humble yourself and ask directions of someone on the street.  

Incidentally, Nathan inquired about buying a map in one place and apparently the shopkeeper didn't expect to hear Albanian because Nathan heard her tell her daughter, "I don't know what he just said, I think he's Italian."  At another place, someone else asked him if he was Greek, and the innkeeper at one hotel asked if I was French!  In each case we were speaking Albanian.  Thankfully, when we repeated ourselves, we were understood -- maybe the dialect was different enough?  I don't know.  Regardless, it was empowering to travel this time and have reasonable language skills to communicate our needs and understand a good deal of what was being said to us.  On days like today where our class literally had our teacher raising her voice in frustration with us, I have to remind myself, "I could not have done this 8 months ago, much less 4 months ago."

That being said, we asked directions and found the hot springs!  Thanks to a Swiss development project, the primary spring was dammed up, making a semi-warm pool for swimming.  It was accompanied by a sign declaring the water's curative effects.

Had I known the only way to access it was to cross this old Ottoman Bridge, I may have had second thoughts...

I'm not sure the photo does justice to the height of the bridge, nor how narrow it felt holding Ellie's hand while a stream of boys on bicycles passed us.   Did I mention how rapidly the water was flowing below?  Recipe for vertigo if I ever could devise one... that's right.  No guard rails.

We saw a lot of these.  As well as donkeys, goats, and cows.

Though the roads are pretty well-marked and we could have gotten by without GPS, I thought you should see just how curvy the roads are:

And we were reminded again how a country the size of Maryland can feel like it's the size of Texas.

But, we were rewarded with views like this (and I'm not talking about the two people in the middle).

I wish I could remember what Nathan said to Abby here...

It was really rejuvenating for the soul -- to get away from the dense-ness of Tirana, the barrage of billboards and advertisements (on anything that sits still long enough to be read), the accompanying noise, litter, construction and un-finished buildings... It gave us a fresh perspective and a different view of this place we now call home.